Chapter 6:

Though that single word was enough to prove, without a doubt, that whoever this Jonas person was, he was indeed friendly, it was still weird bringing a complete stranger into the lab.

Considering that 'Scipio' had become their codeword of sorts, used when it was necessary to tell the difference between one of them and a Xana fake. They had gone to great lengths to keep that knowledge between them, never speaking of it when around technology or other people so their enemy would never find out.

But that wasn't to say Xana hadn't found his way into other deep dark secrets, for all they knew Jonas was just a specter, trying to trick them into trusting him.

"By the way," Jonas proclaimed as they rode the elevator down, causing them to look at him as he leaned into a corner on the other side of the room by himself. "What year is it?"

"2006," Jeremy answered simply.

"And the day?"

"The 19th of August." Jeremy answered again with a questioning tone in his voice. "Why?" He added when the man made a disgruntled face.

"It would seem I overshot my mark." He muttered leaving them to look at him curiously.

"What does that mean?" Odd asked and the guy quietly looked at him before grinning again.

"Nothing for you guys to worry about."

"You know for someone who's supposed to be our friend, you keep an awful lot of secrets." Ulrich pointed out causing the man to shrug.

"I could say the same to you." He countered, which they couldn't really deny.

It was at that moment the doors opened again, allowing the five of them to quietly walk into the room beyond, only looking back when they realized Jonas wasn't with them.

"What's the problem?" Ulrich demanded as the man continued to lean against the wall with his hands in his pockets, clearly content to just stay where he was.

"I just realized I haven't slept in a – while." He admitted simply before moving to actually lie down on the spot. "Wake me in about 5 minutes, would ya?" He proclaimed before closing his eyes, leaving the others shocked and a little miffed.

"What?" Ulrich proclaimed in disbelief before turning back to his friends who looked just as lost as he did. "Who do you think we are – your maid service?" He muttered sourly, but didn't receive a response.

"Wait – he can't be asleep already." Aelita complained as she walked back to check, only to realize that he was in fact out cold.

"Guess he was tired." Odd added simply, leaving them all to sigh dejectedly.

"Okay, I've had just about enough of this. We need to figure out who he is and what he wants." Ulrich demanded.

"What's got you so uptight lately?" Odd stated earning a glare from his roommate.

"I don't trust him." He stated sternly.

"That's obvious." Jeremy pointed out leaving Ulrich to sigh loudly.

"Okay so – maybe I'm a little – anxious." He admitted. "I don't like it when things are beyond my control. Xana at least is predictable."

"I admit this is all very confusing." Jeremy muttered as he sat in his chair and turned to the computer, only to pause in his motion to type when he noticed a flashing envelop on the screen. "What?" He asked it quietly before opening the message only to find it encrypted.

"What is it?" Aelita asked as she walked up to see it as well.

"I have no idea." Jeremy admitted before running a program to break the code, only for the process to shut down before it even started. "Hey," He complained and tried again with the same results.

"What's wrong?" She put in again, leaving Jeremy to shake his head.

"I used this program to decode your Franz Hopper's journals; it shouldn't have a problem with a simple message." He proclaimed as he attempted to start the process once again, only for it to pull up an error box stating that no encryption was found. "Yes there was." He announced in annoyance.

"You're talking to the computer again." Odd joked, earning a glare for his trouble, but, as always, he took it with a grain of salt.

…

"It is too encrypted." Jeremy yelled after having battled with his computer for several minutes.

"Okay, I think someone needs a timeout." Odd whispered into Yumi's ear, causing her to laugh slightly before they were interrupted.

"Actually – it isn't." Jonas suddenly put in causing them all to turn and find him sitting up again. "It's a language, not an encryption." He explained before getting to his feet and carefully walked around everyone in order to get to the computer and read over the massage.

"Than what does it say?" Jeremy demanded sourly, when it was clear that he understood every word on the page.

"Nothing too serious," He announced before reaching out to delete it despite Jeremy's protests. "Say, you think I could use the computer for a second?" He added randomly. "Thanks." He stated before even receiving an answer.

"What – hey!" Jeremy proclaimed in shock as Jonas tapped his foot against a level on the side of the chair, causing it to quickly zip around the room, taking him with it and leaving the man to type something into the system.

"Get away from there!" Ulrich added threateningly as he charged the guy, only to find himself pinned under a foot a moment later as Jonas just continued to type.

"Alright, that's enough." Odd ordered, suddenly serious as he charged as well, even though he already knew he didn't stand a chance against this guy's ninja moves. However, when he attempted to hit him something unexpected happened.

Instead of knocking him back, or taking him out; Jonas just jumped out of the way and backed up several steps, even though he clearly wasn't finished with whatever it was he had been doing.

"Anywho," The man proclaimed, as if talking of the weather, before walking around the room in order to enter the elevator again, leaving everyone in a state of shock as they watched him. "Sorry to hit and run, but I gotta do a few things." He announced before pushing the big red button on the wall, causing the doors to close again as he waved at them good-naturedly.

"Okay, so – that just happened." Odd stated slowly before moving to help Ulrich to his feet and Jeremy walked over to check on the computer, finding that nothing appeared to be wrong with it.

"Yeah –" Yumi admitted as she looked back at the elevator doors. "Question is – what just happened?"

"I have no idea, but it looks like he was trying to send a massage." Jeremy explained as he eyed the newly encrypted text, trying to figure out what it said, but only sighed as he realized it was hopeless. "Aelita, maybe we should –" He started again as he looked to where she had been standing; only to find that she had disappeared.

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